Mike Howells / Collegian File Photo
Fresno State’s quest for the Western Athletic Conference title will go through the Bulldog Diamond as the softball team hosts the WAC Tournament today.
The Dogs earned the No. 3 seed and will play a familiar opponent as they will face Louisiana Tech. The Dogs played Louisiana Tech earlier in the season sweeping the Lady Techsters in a three-games series.
Since their series with Fresno State in late March, Louisiana Tech hasn’t won many games but over this past weekend they went 2-1 against Utah State to earn the No. 6 seed in the WAC Tournament.
The ‘Dogs learned what seed they would be after going 2-1 in the Nevada series over the weekend. One key player gave her thoughts on the series.
“It feels good,” junior pitcher Michelle Moses said. “It feels good to come out and take two.”
Moses was a factor in both of their wins as she had two complete games and finished with 19 strikeouts. She also only allowed seven hits throughout the series.
After the final game of the weekend, softball head coach Margie Wright gave some thoughts on how Moses has performed.
“I thought she pitched a great game,” Wright said. “She shut them out, and they’re a good hitting team so I was really pleased with that.”
Moses has provided the team with a go-to pitcher as she has went 7-4 in her last 11 starts after starting off the season with a 6-6 record.
Since Moses’ turnaround, the Bulldogs have only lost a couple games but she explained what she expects to see from the other teams in the WAC Tournament.
“A lot of good teams,” Moses said. “It’s a race for first place in the WAC right now. Whoever wants it the most is going to take it this year.”
The race for the WAC regular-season title was close as the top-four seeds were within a few games of each other.
Top-seeded New Mexico State ended the regular season on a three-game winning streak. It wasn’t the only team to end the season on a winning note as Hawaii finished winning six games in a row. The Rainbow Wahine were picked before the season as favorites to win the WAC regular-season title.
With the added competition to win the WAC crown, Moses described what they will have to do to win it all.
“We just need to do fundamentals,” Moses said. “Go back to the basics to win ball games and keep hitting the ball like we have.”
The ‘Dogs have hit the ball a lot as they accumulated 22 hits against Nevada this past weekend. They will have to get back to the basics to capture another WAC Tournament and get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Wright also talked about what the team will need to do to make their record 30th appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
“Nothing different,” Wright said. “We just need to go in thinking we got to play one game at a time and win each game.”
